Google’s Core Web Vitals will soon be used to rank a site’s SEO. The rollout is due this summer, so it’s currently high up on many publishers’ agendas. Ad-serving best practices can significantly impact whether a site passes or fails Web Vitals.

Publishers who can adapt and embrace the initiatives are set to benefit from increased search traffic, more users returning to their sites, and more time spent on their sites/per session, hence, delivering better value to users and advertisers.

Google introduced Web Vitals to drive the browser experience forward and optimize the user experience. Core Web Vitals consists of the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) / First Input Delay (FID)/ Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) and covers a site’s speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.

Along with this initiative, they offer several tools like Pagespeed, Lighthouse, and others that support Core Web Vitals and give more information to analyze them.

But, which are the best tools to use? How should site owners and developers filter and prioritize all of the information to optimize their sites and save time? Knowing where to start can make all the difference!

Getting started:

First of all, it’s important to understand that the metrics are weighted. This should affect how publishers prioritize them rather than focusing on issues with a low weight, which could mean a waste of precious time.

https://googlechrome.github.io/lighthouse/scorecalc/

Here is the four-step process that can serve as a template to take on Core Web Vitals:

1. Assess your site or product

Start with two of the core tools that Google created, mainly PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse, and use them to profile your site pages. If needed, Search Console provides site owners with an overview of groups of pages that need attention, and in these tools, you’ll see all Web Vital metrics, their severity level, and how they affect the final score.

These three tools give you a complete map of the issues you should fix according to how potential or real users experience your site (using lab or field data).

One example from the advertising industry that can be analyzed and we’ve seen a lot is the CLS issue around video player’s initial loading on sites or floating players. The idea of CLS is to give users a seamless experience rather than see the page build-up. To improve scores, reserve a placeholder for each element while it loads, and only show them when they’re truly ready.

If you want a simpler real-time tool to inspect pages, you can use one of the chrome extensions available that give a general assessment and highlight your score for each Core Web Vital metric, for example; https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-vitals/ahfhijdlegdabablpippeagghigmibma?hl=en.

2. Review specific issues and fixes with Performance Tab

After identifying the focal points to work on, you should start a few iterations of development – testing – evaluation. We recommend using, Chrome Dev Tools Performance panel to evaluate your work. The Experience section will help detect unexpected layout shifts and give you additional data to analyze, such as the causing element for the CLS and its exact effect on the score.
Use the page load recordings to record a user session and review touchpoints to see if any issues occur after you’ve made changes. In Primis’ case, after making adjustments to the floating unit we could see how this affected the report’s results and if the CLS was resolved.

Other metrics can be tracked in the performance tab such as LCP, FCP, and Total Blocking Time (TBT), but even better ways to investigate and analyze them (mainly for developers) are presented in this excellent blog post by Google – https://web.dev/debug-web-vitals-in-the-field/.

3. Continuously plan your site or product with Core Web Vitals in mind

There are general code issues that Google suggests you fix and optimize as part of Web Vitals, and you should take these into account when creating new features:

1. Javascript built asynchronously (no synchronous blocking javascript)
2. Avoid extensive js timers in code
3. Apply lazy-loading concepts

Try to avoid or minimize the use of blocking JavaScript, especially external scripts. Scripts are necessary to render page content and can be inlined to avoid extra network requests. However, the inlined content needs to be lightweight and must execute quickly to deliver good performance. Scripts that are not critical to the initial render should be made asynchronous or deferred until after the first render.

Train your developers to use these tools as part of their onboarding process. It’s also very important to have your customer success managers familiarize themselves with the best practices to minimize the impact of Web Vitals.

Make sure these practices are ingrained throughout your organization to better equip your employees and help you stay one step ahead.

4. Use less third-party technologies

Many site owners use services to monetize their sites. When optimizing your site with Web Vitals, you are better off choosing to work with companies that don’t rely on third-party technology. Reasons for this include situations where after running reports, suggestions come up to improve Web Vitals that require code changes.

These can be fixed faster and more efficiently if you can go to the company directly to fix them. Whereas, if you use a company for monetization of your inventory that utilizes another company’s tech, it can be a more complicated and slower process to align the changes.

We believe that developers and vendors should own as much of the technology as possible, and not use “black-box” solutions inside code that would hurt the ability to quickly change and adapt to any issues that arise because of its overhead, such as those from Web Vitals.

The post How To Use Core Web Vitals Tools Before Summer’s Rollout appeared first on Primis.

These enhancements to our product fulfill the common purpose of achieving the unmatched, industry-leading user experience that we prioritize.

Closed Captions

We will begin rolling out Closed Captions as a default option for playlists across the Primis network this week. While the feature is common on other video channels, like Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix, we are among the first to implement it on a video ad unit.

The Primis unit will be using AI and machine learning tech from the GCP (Google Cloud Platform) in order to integrate automated Speech-to-Text into our platform. These capabilities will be free for our partners that are promoting their own content through the Primis unit. We want to ensure that our partners maintain the high UX standards that they have come to expect from Primis.

Closed Captions will enhance user experience, allowing site visitors to take control of their own viewing experience by offering them the option to consume video content through text. It will also have a positive impact on how the hearing impaired community consumes video content.

Through testing, we have concluded that this will increase user time-on-page and overall engagement. This includes interactions with the unit, such as turning the volume on, choosing full screen and viewing another video in the attached playlist.

Two New Skins

Our other upcoming development is the release of two new skins that publishers can choose for their native Primis video units. These skins provide new possibilities for how publishers display their discovery units. 

Customizability enables a more native unit. And when a video ad unit blends seamlessly into a website, it improves user experience, draws higher engagement and earns more revenue. So, not only will these players look great on articles and blogs, they will make visitors happy and keep them consuming content.

Begin Using These Features

Want to implement Closed Captions onto your Primis unit? Think that one of these new skins will enhance your video content? 

Then reach out to your Primis Customer Success Manager or send us a contact request if you are not yet a Primis partner.

The post Product Updates: Closed Captions and Two New Skins appeared first on Primis.

Primis is incorporating API capabilities into its already innovative Video Discovery Unit. These added features will enable publishers to get to know their users better, thereby creating a more efficient and monetizable processes. It will also improve user experience for visitors who engage with Primis partner sites, articles, and video content.

What is a Video API?

An API is a set of requirements that govern how one application can communicate and interact with another. The Video API is a tool for developers to interact with the player directly through code, get event notifications and even control the player. 

To put it in terms that we can all understand, let’s take Lego for example. Lego bricks have a universal way of connecting to each other via small bumps and holes, which can be considered an API. This provides a simple and structured way to allow pieces to be built together in different ways. 

In the same vein, a site and a video player can connect through API to create new and interesting mashups and data sharing.

How the Primis Video Player API Works

In order for Player API to work, the site developer should write a few lines of code that will identify the player on the page and register the desired events. In that moment, the publisher can choose which events are most important to know about, such as clicks, impressions, ad engagements, volume toggles, and more. You can find more details and explanations in our official Primis Video Discovery Player API guide. 

From that moment, when a user is identified as having watched a video, an ad or having engaged with the player, the player will send a notification about these events. 

These events are occurring through code, so the publisher or site developer should use these notification in their own way. They can send the event with the relevant data to their servers and store it in their database. This data will become a valuable asset that the publisher can utilize in many ways.

It’s worth noting that we are planning to add extensive, valuable data to the events soon. This can include discovering which video was watched, for how long, and other related events. 

Our goal is to give our partners and customers the best video experience, and the player API is an important step towards that goal. This will help publishers get more familiar with their users and how they engage within their site.

Eyal Betzalel

Co-CEO, Primis

How Can Publishers Use Primis Player API Data?

As said before, publishers can use Primis Video Player API capabilities to track a user’s journey in real time, and even combine that information with existing data on that specific user. But how exactly does that benefit the publisher?

Here are a few examples of how publishers can make data-driven decisions through the use of our Player API or by integrating it with other data they have:

• Give readers the content they want – If a user watched or interacted with a specific video, a publisher can automate a process that would recommend them an article to read about that same topic. This action can improve time on page, pages per visit, article engagement, and promote a better overall user experience.
• Know the exact ROI of each user – Publishers can know in real time how much they earned from a specific ad impression. They can understand the exact ROI of every user interaction, and overall of the user.
• Target users better – If a user converted and engaged with a video, then it may be a great opportunity for targeting. A publisher can identify characteristics of engaged users, in order to improve paid targeting and allocating budget to attract users that are most likely to engage.

There’s More to Come

With the feedback from our partners like you, we will be able to continue to improve the feature and make it even more useful.

If you’re already a Primis partner, then make sure to check out this guide.

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